Apparatus for producing contrasting colored effects



March 3, 1970 s. H. WILLIAMS ET AL 3,498,086

APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING COQTRASTING COLORED EFFECTS Filed Aug. 3, 1967 a r0 2'" U.

'2 l um I i l I [H] INVENTORS Sumner H. Williams By Joseph Reid Ellis ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,498,086 APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING CONTRASTING COLORED EFFECTS Sumner H. Williams, Short Hills, N.J., and Joseph Reid Ellis, Easton, Pa., assignors to GAF Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 3, 1967, Ser. No. 660,167 Int. Cl. D06c 23/00; D06p 7/00 US. CI. 6813 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to a process for producing patterns, physical effects or designs on material, and to apparatus for carrying out the process, and more particularly to a process for providing patterns of enhanced or intensified color on cloth or other textile material, with respect to the background and for providing a pattern of contrasting, multi-shade or variable physical effects on such materials.

The present invention is an improvement on the process and apparatus disclosed in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 614,520 filed on Feb. 7, 1967. As disclosed in detail in the aforesaid application, material permeated with solutions or dispersions of dyes, pigments or chemicals are contacted with a heated die having the desired pattern. The elevated temperatures of the heated die cause flash evaporation of the moisture in the material whereby the products migrate to and are intensified at the heated contacted surfaces.

Briefly, in accordance with the present invention, the contrast of the desired pattern over the background is obtained by preferentially migrating one dye or colorant over another. This can be achieved by first dyeing the material with a certain background color, drying the background, and then padding a second color thereon. This second color, only, is then migrated and then fixed.

In an alternative process, a first color is applied which is migrated and the material, having the migrated color thereon, is then passed through a second bath containing a second coloring agent together with a reducing agent or agents to reduce the migrated as well as the second background color in order to fix them to the material. The materials is then steamed, rinsed, oxidized, rinsed, soaped and rinsed by conventional procedures.

According to yet another variation of the process, it has been determined that the appearance of a pattern on the material may be materially improved by migrating the dyes in an improved fashion before fixation. Thus, a single color is migrated by means of a pattern-carrying roller ap lied to one surface. The material is then contacted at its other surface with a heated roller to migrate the remaining dye in the other direction with respect to the roller to migrate the remaining dye in the other direction with respect to the thickness of the material, whereby the contrast of the material migrated in the first direction, by the first roller, is further enhanced.

It is therefore the principal object of this invention to provide a process and apparatus for carrying out the process of enhancing the contrast of a pattern obtainable with respect to a background color on a fabric.

Another object of the invention is to provide a process for varying the ground shade of a pattern.

3,498,086 Patented Mar. 3, 1970 Still another object of the invention is to provide contrasting stripes on a fabric with the stripes themselves having a variation in shade.

A still further object of the invention is to provide apparatus for enhancing the ground shade of a migrated pattern by migrating the color to the back side of the fabric.

These and other objects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating, in the manner of a flow chart, the process and apparatus in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a different embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 3 illustrates yet another embodiment of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings wherein like reference characters designate like or corresponding parts throughout the several views, there is shown in FIG. 1 a web material, for example, cotton twill cloth 10 which is transported over a guide roller 11 into a dye bath schematically indicated as pad box 12 where a first dyeing substance is applied to the material 10. The material 10 then passes through a pair of squeeze rollers 13, through a dryer 14 over another guide roller 15 and through a second pad box 16 where a second dye is applied onto the web 10.

Material 10 is then passed through another set of squeeze rollers 17 where the moisture is reduced to be in the range of between 50 to 125 percent of the weight of the dry material and then contacted by a migrating device 18. Device 18 is comprised of a heated roller having the desired pattern embossed or engraved thereon. The exact structure of the migrating device 18 is disclosed and described in detail in the aforementioned co-pending application. The web material 10, after having the dye migrated is then passed into a pad box 20 which may contain a developing, fixing, or reducing bath, as will appear in detail below. The material is then passed through a pair of squeeze rollers 21 and processed as desired, i.e. steaming, rinsing, etc., in a manner well known and designated in FIG. 1 as unit 25. The web is then reeled upon a takeup roll 26.

The following example will illustrate the process: As a first step the material is passed through the pad box 12 containing a reduced vat-color solution which fixes as soon as it is applied, thereby producing a shade which will not migrate. For example, to produce a shade of yellow, the material is passed through pad box 12 which contains the following reduced solution:

Oz. per gal. Algol Yellow GC Infra Paste 3.00 Caustic soda 2.00 Sodium hydrosulfite 2.00

l The material is then squeezed by rollers 13 and dried in dryer 14 where it oxidizes to a yellow color.

In the next step, the material is passed through the second pad box 16 and saturated with an unreduced vat dye dispersion, i.e. 4.00 oz. per gal. Indanthrene Blue BCF Infra Double Paste. The products of the second application are not fixed during saturation and extraction and thus are susceptible to migration. The material is then squeezed by rollers 17 to retain about 70 percent moisture and brought into contact for about half to one second with the migrating device 18 heated to about 650 F. The range of temperature of this migrating device may be as low as 300 degrees and as high as 1,000 degrees. The important point is that the temperature is below the scorch point of the material, that is, the time of contact of the material with the migrating device, and the temperature thereof, are so adjusted that scorching is prevented. As the material is brought in contact with the migrating device, only the unreduced vat dispersion moves to produce the design or pattern leaving the vat coloring applied in pad box 12 unaffected. That is, the areas contacted by the heated die are greenish blue or dark green in color whereas the uncontacted areas are light green or greenish yellow in color.

In order to completely fix the dyes, the material is further treated by conventional reducing agents, i.e. 6 oz. per gal. Caustic soda and 6 oz. per gal. hydrosulfite, in pad box 20. The material is then squeezed and the color developed by the pad stream method and finished by rising, oxidizing, rinsing and soaping in the conventional manner in unit 25. The combination of the agents within pad box 20, and the steps in unit 25 complet the fixation of all the coloring products.

The results obtained, as previously described, are a light green background, with dark green stripes. When the stripes are narrow, for example, in the range of one or two mm. or so, they are completely solid and dark and have good and sharp contrast at the edges with respect to the background material. When the stripes are wider, for example, mm. or more, the edges of the stripes are very dark, but the region between the edges is slightly lighter; if the width of the stripes is in the order of one centimeter or so, the central area within the broad stripes may be almost as light as the background area. This very pleasing effect of dark contrasting stripes, which themselves have a variation in shade, can readily be obtained by the process according to the present invention.

Although the reason for the effect is unknown, it may be due to lateral migration of the color products from the uncontacted part of the fabric to the point of contact such that the color products cannot migrate further toward the center of the broad stripe, since the water has evaporated. An alternative reason for the effect is that it may be due to the wider ridges of the engraved rolls causing a higher percentage of vat blue, which was applied as an unreduced vat dispersion, to be migrated to the point of contact leaving a lighter area between the lines. The narrow lines, because of their limited degree of contact and consequently less evaporation, do not migrate the same percentage of blue from the body of the material. Thus, varying shades of light green across the pattern may be obtained. This variance in ground shades, which is produced by the types of engravings used for migrating, is new and novel and not producible with vat colors by any of the presently used printing or dyeing systems.

FIG. 2 illustrates an apparatus and process which differs from the process and apparatus of FIG. 1 in that the colors, although at the same concentrations, are applied to the fabric in different order.

Again, web material 10 is passed over a roller 11 and into a first pad box 32 where it is saturated with the Indanthrene Blue BCF Infra Double Paste and squeezed to a moisture retention of about 70' percent of the dry weight of the material by squeeze rollers 33. The material is then brought into contact with the pattern migrating device 18, as in the prior example, for half to one second at 650 F The pattern is produced on the material at the points of contact with heated surfaces of the device 18.

The ground shade is then produced by passing the material from migrating device 18 into a chemical pad 36 heated to about 120 F. and containing the same reduced vat color so that contained within pad box 12 in the first embodiment as explained in connection with FIG. 1.

[From the chemical pad 36, which contained the reduced vat color, the material is passed directly into unit for further reduction of the vat color and simultaneously reduction of the vat pigment dispersion which was applied to the material in the pad box 32 and then migrated. In the unit 25, the material is steamed, rinsed, oxidized,

rinsed, soaped and rinsed again by conventional procedures and reeled upon the take-up roll 26.

The process as explained in connection with FIG. 2 is shorter as it used the chemical pad operation for applying not only the reduction chemicals but also the reduced vat color for the ground shade thereby eliminating a padding and a drying operation. This process, again, shows the production of wide variances of contrasting shades between the design and the ground shades while using the same reduced vat color and unreduced vat color dispersion as used in the previous example.

This process is'not limited to vat colors and may be used with other classes'of dyes, pigments and chemicals, by, saturation and fixing on the web material those products not to be migrated, and applying separate solutions or dispersions containing the same or different products, which are to be migrated to a certain design or pattern. Green-yellow effects can be obtained, for example, with reactive dyes. The first pad "box, for example, pad box 12 (FIG. 1) may contain:

Oz. Genafix Brilliant Yellow 36 3 Urea 12 Soda Ash 3 The material is then dried in dryer 14 and saturated in pad box 16 with, for example, 3 oz. per gal. Genafix Turquoise Blue FGW. Moisture retention in the material after squeezing is maintainedv at about 75 percent and migration, again, is at a temperature of about 650 F. for one half to one second. The material is then heat-fixed for three minutes at 310 -F., rinsed soaped, rinsed and dried.

Water soluble vat colors may also be used. One pad box may contain products to be dried and fixed not by reduction, but by oxidation; the other pad box may contain products that are migrated within the moist material before fixation. These products are well known to the trade as Algosols, or Indigolols.

Plain shade effects having a solid over-all appearance by migrating the color to one side of the fabric, may be carried out by the same process thereby producing wide variations of color effects from the back, as compared to the face of the fabric, when a plain surface heated roll is used in place of one having a pattern as will now be described.

Referring now to FIG. 3, web material 10 is passed through a pad box 42 which may contain any of the substances referred to above that have migrating properties, or in the co-pending heretobefore mentioned application. The dyed material is squeezed by squeeze rollers 13, as before, and passed over a first migrating device generally designated by reference numeral 48. The arrowindicates that the side rollers 41, 41 are movable with respect to the heated pattern-carrying roller 43, as explained in detail in the aforementioned co-pending application. The opposite side of the surface of the web material is then contacted by a second migrating device generally designated as reference numeral 58, again having movable side rollers 51, 51 and a heated migrating roller 52. The roller 52 is a plain heated roller maintained at a temperature from about 300 to 1,000 F. although it, too, could be a pattern carrying roller. Dyes, pigments or products which were not migrated by contact with the pattern carrying roller 43 are now migrated to the opposite side of the material by roller 52, thereby producing greater color contrasts between the design and ground shades. The time of contact, and the temperature in first migrating device 48 is so adjusted that material leaves the heated roller 43 at the point of dryness, at the areas contacted by the heated roller. Areas still containing moisture from the pad box 42 can then be migrated to the opposite side when contacted with the plain faced roller 52, heated to produce the necessary migration. After migration, fixation of the products as used in the process is carried out in unit 25 in a manner well known in the art. If desired, intermediate the second migrating device 58 and the unit 25, an additional pad box may be inserted; for example, the pad box 42 may contain the same migrating dye as ad box 32 (FIG. 2) and since the migrating devices 48 and 58 functionally correspond to the migrating device 18 of FIG. 2 another pad box (not shown) which is similar to pad box 36 may be inserted between the migrating device 58 and unit 25-. Alternatively, the material may already have a certain background shade, or be natural, bleached or unbleached thereby requiring the application of only one coloring solution. The contrast produced between the pattern of device 48 and the background is materially enhanced by the additional backside migration device 58.

For the purpose of the present specification, the term dye is intended to mean products applied to the fabric whether visually contrasting in color with the raw material as received or not. In addition to dyes and pigments, desira-ble changes may be produced by the migration of resins or other chemical products that will migrate in much the same fashion as dyes and pigments, and thus produce a contrast in color or other physical effects in or on fabrics. It should also be understood that the foregoing relates to only a preferred embodiment of the invention, and that it is intended to cover all changes and modifications of the example of the invention herein chosen for the purpose of the disclosure, which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention. What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for developing a pattern on the surface of textile material comprising:

means for applying a first liquid substance to said material, means applying a second liquid substance to said material, at least one of said substances having migrating properties, a heated die having the desired pattern, transport means for transporting said material over said die in contact therewith whereby to migrate said substance having migrating properties to said surface of said material, and means fixing said substances to said material. 2. The apparatus recited in claim 1 wherein said means fixing said substances further includes:

a first bath including a fixation agent, a second bath including a fixation agent, and

transport means for transporting said material first through said first bath, then over said die, and then through said second bath.

3. The apparatus recited in claim 1 further including a second heated die, said second die being a plain roller contacting said material on the other surface thereof, and said roller being heated to migrate said substances to the other side of said material.

4. The apparatus recited in claim 3 for use with heatfixable materials, said plain roller being heated to a range of from 300 to 1,000 F. to simultaneously migrate said migrating properties in said substance while heat-fixing said substances.

5. An apparatus for developing a pattern on a surface of a textile material comprising:

means impregnating said material With a liquid substance having migrating properties,

a first heated die having the desired pattern,

transport means for transporting said material over said die and in contact with said surface, thereby to migrate said migrating properties in said substance to said surface of said material in said pattern,

a second heated die, and

transport means transporting said material over said second die and in contact with the opposite surface of said textile material.

6. The apparatus recited in claim 5 for use with a web material wherein said first die is a pattern roller, and further comprises:

guide rollers for guiding said web material around said pattern roller, said second die is a plain heated roller, and

guide rollers for guiding said web material around said second die.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,144,685 1/1939 Mellor et al. 2669 2,461,603 2/1949 Hunter et al. 2669 2,667,426 1/ 1954 Davis 2669 X 2,954,269 9/ 1960 Fortess et a1. 2669 X WILLIAM I. PRICE, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

